About The Honest Haul
Hi, I'm Morgan.
I grew up in a small coastal town in Downeast Maine, the kind of place where you know everyone and everyone knows you. I spent my first year and a half of college changing majors every semester, never once thinking nursing was in my future. Somehow I ended up in nursing school anyway and I have now spent twenty years as a nurse, sixteen of them in critical care, and five of those sixteen as a critical care transport nurse for LifeFlight of Maine, the state's only air ambulance service.
Critical care is my calling. The autonomy, the high stakes, the ability to look at a situation and know exactly what needs to happen without asking permission. That instinct for cutting through noise and getting to what actually matters is not something I leave at the hospital.
I bring it here too.
Why The Honest Haul Exists
Last summer my husband received one of those once-in-a-lifetime job opportunities, the kind you simply cannot say no to. So we packed up our life in Maine and moved to Florida.
I had to resign from my transport position to make the move. After twenty years of high-acuity nursing, including five years flying across New England, I suddenly found myself in a completely new chapter.
And I did what I’ve always done when I need something: I went to Amazon. I joke that I don’t Google products, I Amazon them. If we need something for the house, a trip, the kitchen, or everyday life, Amazon is usually the first place I check.
When I went back through my order history, I found product after product my husband and I had genuinely used and loved. Travel gear. Tech accessories. Home finds. Things we had tested across road trips, international flights, a cross-country move, and ordinary life at home. Real products with real opinions behind them.
So I started writing them down.
The Honest Haul grew from that. Not a calculated content strategy or a list of products chosen just because they pay a commission. I was already buying, using, comparing, keeping, returning, and recommending these things. Now I have a place to tell you what I actually think.
What You Can Expect Here
Most products I review are purchased with my own money and used in real life before I ever write about them. If I receive a product at no cost or through a brand partnership, I’ll clearly disclose it. Either way, the opinion is mine.
My husband is a 26-year Army veteran who has been to a lot of places but missed a lot of the scenery along the way. We’re working to fix that. Which means we travel, we pack smart, and we have very strong opinions about what makes the cut and what doesn’t.
When something works, I’ll tell you exactly why and who I think it’s right for.
When something doesn’t, I’ll tell you that too.
That’s the whole premise.
A Note on Affiliate Links
Some links on this site are affiliate links, including links to Amazon. If you make a qualifying purchase through one of those links, I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. That never changes what I recommend or what I say about a product.
I spent twenty years in nursing learning that when the truth matters, you say what needs to be said.
It always matters more.
Welcome to The Honest Haul. Pull up a chair and stay a while.
Honest reviews on real products. No hype, no fluff, just the truth.